Double Fine's Massive Chalice to feature same-sex relationships

Double Fine's crowdfunded strategy-RPG Massive Chalice will include same-sex relationships and marriage as part of its generation-based gameplay, developer Brad Muir revealed while talking with Rock Paper Shotgun.

Muir notes that feedback from Kickstarter backers inspired his team's decision to include same-sex options. "We did not talk about [the possibility of gay marriage] until we launched the Kickstarter," he told RPS. "We were so focused on pure pragmatic mechanics and how it would work and coupling and all these things that we hadn't [considered it]."

"One of the cool things is we have the opportunity to think about it and address it because we brought it to the community," Muir continued. "We brought it to a broader group of people, and then there were some people who brought it up and wanted to talk about it. There's a raging thread on our forums."

Muir previously expressed a desire to have an equality between sexes in this video discussing Massive Chalice's design. "We wanted to make [gameplay] sex-agnostic," Muir said. "[Both sexes are] both going to be super-badass on the battlefield, killing demons together."

Muir notes that same-sex gameplay aspects may have never been considered, had Double Fine opted for traditional publisher-driven development. "We might just overlook something like same-sex coupling all the way until we announce the game." he told RPS. "If somebody did think about it during that whole thing, they would've probably just killed it because it is such a controversial issue. They'd probably not want to have it associated with the game at all."

Massive Chalice met its funding goal earlier this month, and its Kickstarter campaign will conclude on June 27.